With a horrendous Formula Drift Malaysia 2009 and the Formula Drift Singapore 2010, Team Goodyear Sync Optima was really looking forward to the Goodyear International Drift Series . We had the cars prepared and preserve ( ie:not using on competitions following to it) as this competition is on the top of our priority list for this year!

picture taken from paultan.org

First day of practice went by perfectly as Jane and I basically got the course wired within a couple of tries and we were confident on doing well the next day.

Day two had us split into two groups whith us in the first group of practice.Having 1 hour of practice each group we had more than enough time to practice for the qualifying scheduled later. As my ‘wonderful’ luck had it, 15 minutes before our groups practice ends, my prop shaft had twisted to a pretzel!!

With only slightly over an hour before qualifying to get the parts and fix it. I knew it would be an impossible task ( which my crew did try anyway..thanks guys) and my day was over. So its a DNS ( Did Not Start) for me which I think is even worse than not qualifying 😛

Jane ,once again ,had her nerves get the best of her and fumbled during qualifying…oh well …call me a sadist but bring on round 2!!!

Results

DNS: Ariff Johanis Ahmad

DNQ: Azrina Jane Abdullah

It was back to MIMC Malacca but this time for Goodyear International Drift Series Round 2. Having exprience the short comings of the car here , we had the s13 set up differently and was eager to see how it handles. Car handled alot better but we reckon that there were alot more we could do to improve on . As always that will have to wait till after this event, once we get back to the shop .

photo taken by sham Tom

photo taken by Sham Tom

Jane had also improve remarkably with her runs now being more consistent and aggressive. We did practice tsuiso togather but she spent the bulk of the the practice session with Tan Tat Wei .

Qualifying

Held the next day, qualifying had me leading during the first round with 87.5 points. However I was knocked off by Djan who had a 91.6 on the 2nd run!

Jane’s runs were smooth with uninterrupted drifts . However her distance from the clipping points and zones had caused a huge deduction in points hence having her failed to get to the Best 16. Nailing the points and zones is something I believe she well get better with easily, at the rate she is improving now.

photo from paultan.org

Top 16

Having qualified 2nd had placed me on the other corner of the tandem chart which means I had to go out last!The waiting gaveme the opportunity to get to know my tandem partner,Chester.He was driving a borrowed s14 since he car was badly damageduring a crash at round 1! During our tandem battle I had managed to pull a gap when I was infront .While following, Chester had straightenslightly at the first rear clipping which forced me to back down my pace.However there wasn’t any interruption of my drift all the way to the finish.

photo from paultan.org

Top 8

For the next round , I had to go against a friend and fellow Goodyear mate, Ivan Lim. He was struggling of setup issues through out the event!! This had him straightening and taking the inner line while I was leading and going off course during initiation during his turn to lead.

photo from paultan.org

Top 4

Ivan Lau and I always joked about how we never get to go against each other during competition.For this round we both got ourwish. While leading, I managed to get ‘an advantage’ when Ivan straighten and with me pulling a gap between us. During my turn to follow, Ivan had controlled his pace during the start forcing me to initiate at a much slower speed than I was used to. This made me having to down shift immediately after initiation and fumbled during the up shift causing me straighten considerably longer than Ivan’s during the 1st run. The win was awarded to Ivan. I will definitely be wiser the next time around!!

photo from paultan.org

3rd and 4th

The final spot on the podium had me against Djan. He had qualified first , so he had the first lead run. I managed to narrow the gap though he had gained a healthy lead at the start. However I felt my line wasnt as good . Going into the 2nd run being unsure of who had the advantage, had me doing my best qualifying run only to see Djan in the barrier when I was approaching the rear clipping zone.Thankfully the crash was minor and no one was hurt!

photo from paultan.org

Though this wasn’t the first time being on the podium this year, I felt that this occasion was something special as it is Goodyear’s event..Hopefully my luck holds and do good for the up coming events!

I couldn’t believe how slow I was. No doubt it’s my road car and short shifted at 5000rpm due to the worrying knocking sounds I heard ( Excuses #1 and #2) but still ,I had expected a better time. I must have held back a bunch of drivers during my run ..sorry guys … 2’59” WTF????

Jane did better with a 2’54” placing her 4th in her category; all this on drift setup!!

But the one that impressed me the most was Nas; it was his first time on the track so he drove at a fairly leisure pace , with the air con on ,with me ridding shot gun, and he posted a 3’8″!!! wow!!

Yoong posted the fastest time of 2’31” on his S13 which is no suprise as he is fast no matter what form of motorsport discipline he enters .Another person that inspires me is a friend of mine Megat ‘kalau-time-you-bagus-you-masuk-front-page-hall-of-fame-itu-yang-kita-nak-tu’ Arizal (ari7474). He got himself a FD2R and managed to clock a time of 2’38”. His advice for me that day was ” Make sure you trim your arm pit hair when wearing asleeveless t-shirts!!”

Megat Arizal and Daphne..bet he gave her the same advice on arm pit hair

Now I can’t wait for round 3 where I aim to break into the two forties time zone…wish me luck

Once again, we had the opportunity to conduct another of our Drift 101 lesson for a bunch of enthusiastic Singaporeans. Held at the Nusajaya Drift track in Johore, this solid 8 hour intensive course saw our students drifting effortlessly by the end of the day. As much as we love to get all the credit for this, we have to mention that this particular bunch is by far the most talented that we have ever encountered !!!

Since we had withdrew from our role as organisers of the MICCOS Drift Challenge , Ivan Lim from Binter Singapore and I had decided to participate in supporting in the event whom had newly appointed organiser, Feinto-D on the helm.Ariff did not compete in this event as he had gone off to salvage his placings in the GRA event held in Sepang on the same day.

As mentioned earlier ,our withdrawal from the event was due to the absences of safety equipments , like water barrier, tire barrier, cones, fire extinguishers and etc and due to that, the newly appointed organisers had to alter the course to a much smaller course which in turn is a much slower course with much more run off space. This was a wise move as at the edge of the course , there’s a steep downward slope which we fear might cause cars to come barrelling down if they were to veer off the course!!

Binter’s Toyota Chaser was sent to Malaysia earlier for Ariff to work on the handling set up of the car

Due to other commitments, we had missed out the Saturday’s practice,but we arrived early enough on Sunday morning to get enough practice .

Driver’s briefing by the judges Loyai (Team GT-Radial) and Along (Team Toyo).

After briefing ,we were then given another 30 minutes of practice.

As we were in Group C. We had enough time to drop by the cafeteria at Maeps Exhibition Hall D to grab our lunch. It was full of stalls with local flavors.

After lunch break, it was time for qualifying . I had some great practice runs earlier but when it comes to qualifying the weather changed tremendously .As the temperature drop so did my grip level. Due to my lack of experience with the Asymetrics tires, I had trouble adjusting to the tire and totally ruin my runs thus not being able to get into the best 16.

As for Ivan Lim, he was very consistent with his runs and he qualified at 5th place. Since not qualifying, I became his spotter during the tandem battle to help him as he was going against driver’s that he had no experience with.

Unfortunately, the rain came pouring down heavily immediately after the best 16 driver’s briefing. . Due to bad water irrigation on the car park, the track is all flooded so the competition was held up.

It took almost 45 minutes for the rain to stop and all the top 16 drivers were given some runs to get use with the wet surface of the track.

Ivan had to go against with Kevin Rajoo on his 180sx at best 16, with such , which he managed to stick by Kevin and won the round , credit to the great performance of the Goodyear Eagle RS-Sport on his Binter Goodyear Toyota Chaser for the win

At best 8, Ivan had to go against with Tan Tat Wei from Team Bridgestone in his Toyota AE86.A small and tight track , along with wet surface tends to favour the smaller cars, especially when it comes to tandem battles. Both of them had good runs but the judges gave an extra advantage point for Tat Wei for keeping closer to Ivan while following. Though losing out at best 8 ,Ivan did a great job drifting his newly setup Chaser! He was alot more precise and confident while drifting.

Having qualified 5th and losing out on best 8th earned him 5th place overall in this competition. Great job Ivan!